Index rebrands for creative focus

Despite the economic difficulties, the group will expand its marketing services by recruiting at least 30 staff this year. The group currently employs about 500 people.

Kreingkrai Kanjanapokin, co-CEO of Index Creative Village, said the rebranding would strengthen the company as a one-stop service agency covering six business groups: events, rental, production, communication, TV and multimedia, and personal branding.

"We still see great potential for our event-organising business, as clients have shifted their advertising budget to below-the-line activities, which are quite measurable and focus on targeted customers," said Kreingkrai.

The group will this year expand its TV business with four new entertainment and informative TV programmes to be produced and supplied to several free and cable-TV channels. The company currently produces TV programmes mainly for TrueVisions.

Index last year achieved growth of 22.3 per cent for revenues of Bt1.27 billion. About 57 per cent of this income was contributed by the event-organising unit.

The group expects its revenues this year to be shared equally by the events unit and other services.

"Our key to success is creativity. We are a creative-based agency and dynamic in developing new potential businesses and innovative services. We want to make ourselves the trendsetter for the industry, and that will help us be more competitive and enjoy sustainable growth," said Kreingkrai.

He said the group's event-organising business had grown from Bt655 million in 2007 to Bt729 million last year. Its business of renting concert equipment, however, dropped from Bt272 million to Bt267 million, due to the closure of airports and the cancellation of many international concerts in Thailand.

The group's production business for backdrops, ink-jet materials and performance stages witnessed significant growth last year, from Bt58 million to Bt154 million.

Its communications service business, including above-the-line and public relations, grew from Bt20 million in 2007 to Bt63 million.

The group's catering business also expanded, from Bt17 million to Bt25 million, while its TV and multimedia business grew from Bt18 million to Bt34 million.

Kreingkrai said Index Creative Village expected to grow its overall revenues by another 22 per cent this year.